List of ripped models (stolen models) on the asset store

Wireframes don't matter. If it looks basically identical you can be sure it's infringing on actual copyright. It doesn't matter if it's a totally new model. Do you think that mario would last 30 seconds on asset store, even with completely brand new geo? I don't think so either. So a copy of blizzard's DESIGNS is just as bad.

 

Anyone know if these models are actually copyrighted many of these models look more than 20 percent different than the original. People take inspiration from each other all the time and change it that's how S*** gets done.

What if 100 percent of your model assets for your game after 2 years of production are taken down. What then do you not launch? Who is responsible for the damages for production cost lost ? No one? Unity isn't at fault for selling them?
We just are F***ed and stuck with the bill? Oh here's $15 bucks back but not the $1000s of time and production around that $15 asset we bought a license for?
What is the solution here, anyone know a reliable site other than UNity asset store to get models because I've lost all faith in unity.
I wish I could sue unity for production costs lost because they let illegal S*** through their door. Do I have a case? Do we have a case here? I'm absolutely livid that there is no actual proof here on if these assets can be used or not, no written notice from the owners giving us the green light to use them if we have them already to be game dev bros. They just gonna wait till we publish and sue us then? What if someone didn't get the email they gonna get sued and their whole game busted over this S***.
What is hell is this S***, we need answers. Anyone know a good lawyer?

 

You can always create a support ticket:

https://support.unity3d.com

 

Thank you for your feedback, it is this kind of customer honesty that will help Unity decide how to better police or guard against potential issues. There's no real such thing as bad feedback, and you have never got anything to fear.

Opinion and honesty is what drives progress.

 

At this time, No one.
I bought a lot of model from "Art Coding".
I spent months to edit animation, texture, reduce poly, put in my Game, coding, and they are part of my game.
Then I got a refund last week.

What should I do now?
Remove them from my game for sure. Lost everything.
Now I will find another models from Asset Store, and pray for them not be taken down again

 

Respectfully yes it does matter.... as an artist, we can TELL 100% if someone made a new model from it or it matches the artist who actually made it..Sure they can change that, but some NOT people who aren't very bright won't .
. So we catch people all the time in the INDUSTRY, from people stealing or uses others people art to sell....


Mario is another story, its a name which is what is copy righted.. as a contractor for nearly 30 years working with various studios, we have to have legal, lawyers involved, due to this very reason.... ( I have had contracts, lawyers dealing with all sorts of stuff for years.......


Now you can use back ground art like Mario, pipes and other types of art from Mario, and Zelda, but characters, NO you can't... Characters, are protected... popular ones are even more protected.... Now game play, from Mario is NOT protected, they can't protect any of the game play from Mario or any game...... So this is where folks get that twisted.. ( ask a lawyer in the gaming industry, they will tell you the same thing.. and be sure to speak to ones that know the laws between countries too, This matters, I know I had to deal with this trash years back, when a contractor didn't pay.. Laws are different.


Just like a Wild West game, you can't make games depicting Native Americans with out permission... and properly depicting them, as they can sue.. ( I have had to deal with this over the years of working in the industry, i'm sure there still isn't some stuff I have not seen, there is a lot, that folks, ignore... and some companies will ignore if say its some tiny little solo dev, not making much..



Characters, names are totally different story.... Just like Story to a movie, game, normally which is what is protected.

for example with out giving to much info for scammers to use... if say you found a model on the asset store or any store, and say it looks like something in a game, if it matches, Textures, wireframes, vertex matches, you can tell 100% even with minor changes, we can tell, I won't share publicly common tricks of the TRADE... which most smart 3d artist do... but we can TELL and prove 100% ... by some of this..

Sure they can STILL try and bake a model down using a low poly, but we can still tell and that I won't share, we have seen almost it all, when you work at various studios over the decades.. Which includes, 2d art as well, all artist have a style, also NO matter who it is... so WE CAN tell whos art and prove very easy if someone stole say my art.... Code is the same way in some sense, I won't share this either, but if you worked in studios and companies, this is something we have to LOOK for.... Most developers who have worked for studios, larger ones mainly, and had to deal with legal and lawyers, will tell you the same thing.

Easy to prove and tell what art, and code I had made over the years..... but having certain things say like wireframes is standard practice.... I can tell artist who done a lot of work, I can tell there art from a mile away.

FOR EXAMPLE, Nature M, I can tell his work a mile away, a lot of known artist, like say Daniel Tiger, I can tell... Josh Lynch to name a few, and many others who I worked with and have not worked with.... even if someone tries to copy it, its easy to tell, that its a copy, not the developer them selves.....ARTIST all have a style, and way of doing things... even if someone of us change over the years, due to experience.... Coding we all do as well, like I was saying..


I have caught scammers, and people copying and pasting code, I can tell they are doing it with out checking..... due to the different styles, that they are doing this to, due to different jobs they may have....very common, i'm afraid and had to fire plenty of people back when I worked as a Senior, Contractor at the studio.

PS try getting a job, with out sending Wireframes as well, I bet they never call you and toss your work in the trash with out wireframes, this is another story but still very important... to the industry as long as I CAN remember for just about anyone I ever had worked for..


Edit I forgot to add, another reason you need wireframes, have you ever animated before??? good luck trying to with BAD topology....... This is common on the asset store, terrible, topology ..

You can't see anything with out WIREFRAMES either.... proper edge flow, you can see as well with WIREFRAMES... again COMMON practice, not trying to be rude here.. Just stating the facts.

 

take it down if its illegal... you can't use if it is...This is why if you are selling a game, SPEAK to a lawyer..... have contracts in place, be sure to BUY art, that isn't from the asset store, UNLESS its from a proven artist.... and even ask them for proof of work, if need be, so that you won't be sued or get caught in a mess... This is standard practice when making and selling a game, or for any contractor... Speak to a lawyer, I deal with one for decades for this reason before I retired.

Now that i'm making a new game I have one for that as well.. even though most work is mine, you still need one, due to people finding reasons to try and sue, hollywood likes to try and say X character looks like them so they try and sue..

So its always BEST to protect your self.... that is what we do in the professional world... Now if this is for education, HOBBY, it don't matter what you do.. you can use as much as you like...

I'm NOT a lawyer, but I can only share my experience, and its always wise to speak to one... period.. Not someone on this forum, when it comes to legal matters... Which is related to that topic. ALso ask Unity support for more info related to that.. but if your refunded anything, legally you should not be used... ethically you shouldn't be either..

 

Yes use a contractor..... I for one, would add that to my contract, stating all of my work was work I did, and if for some reason say it wasn't, that any damages, that say I did, I would be reliable for it... This way your protected any professional will do the same..

I did this for my clients for years.... which is why I was trusted by many companies.. investors etc..

Sure you will pay more for these contractors, but if its a serious game, you will GET better quality, anyways and your protected... The other way as I said before, use KNOWN artist from any store that been around with a GREAT reputation... people look for 10$ assets , which is a red flag , as NO artist can make a living from that, SORRY it don't way.... I see people wasting thousands also as I said about wireframes, the models look good, but are NOT optimized, and most people that use Unity may not know better and have to hire someone to help optimize, I use to do this for years to help games and seen this a TON from the Asset store.... and other market places.. its terrible ...

So work with a good artist, from arts station, or other asset stores, that have a great reputation any artist will give you a letter, about saying there work is there work and not a rip off of someone else and give you that protection, if an artist refuses, DON'T do work with them no matter how cheap.


PS, some good contractors will work cheaper..... but cheaper is NOT always better.. remember that.

There is a few trust worthy artist, on the asset store as far as 3D, texturing... I seen a lot of junk and terrible work... which I see why its so cheap, so it may be legit but alot of the times its not usable for alot of games.. SO, ask around to other developers on who to trust and deal with..

This goes for ART STATION or any artist as well, I got a name for myself, over the years and I didn't even need a portfolio for over 10 years.,.; I'm retired now, but that is how many people will get work ....


Good luck on your search.

 

@Salvatore_Unity There seems to be some odd thing happening on the Unity Asset Store. Only the Asset Store Team can tell for sure since I didn't buy those, but from the looks of it someone yet again took the cars of GR3D right from the Unity Asset Store and sells them modified and as a package on the Unity Asset Store:

The original:

GR3D 80's Sports Car 013014SSCR by Game Ready 3D Models

vs this pack:

Super Drift Cars Pack by Hypecom Studio

Or to compare screenshots:

GR3D:



vs the 4th car of the first row, also compare the interior textures:




Does Unity actually pay damages to the publishers in such a case?

 

Here's the Muscle Car. Basically the texture names of the pack can be mapped to the GR3D Asset names:

GR3D:


vs Hypecom Studio:

 

I took the time to make a quick comparison of more cars, here's the top row of the screenshots of the asset store page vs the GR3D models:

 

@Salvatore_Unity Something needs to happen, it is clearly not right what Unity is doing. On the previous page I posted about the ripping of models of the CSR2 game. Per accident the Bugatti Chiron. I just now saw this:

Realistic Sport Car Pack

I have no idea if this is ripped or not and frankly I don't care anymore. This is the Bugatti Chiron. Obviously. Nobody who buys that model from the Unity Asset Store is allowed to use that in a commercial game. If it's not ripped from a game, then at the very least the Unity customers are being ripped off.

On his youtube page the publisher even has a dedicated video of showing the same car as being the Bugatti Chiron, bottom row:


Why would anyone purchase such a car if they knew it is derived off a licensed design.

Here's the Asset Store description:


The Asset Store description clearly doesn't state the origin, it should tell everyone that this is for private use only.

This car has been on the store since July 2018. Nobody who purchased this car is allowed to use this car and make money from it unless they license it from Bugatti. And nobody will get their money back from Unity since Unity doesn't refund purchases older than 6 months.

There should be a note for all cars that are based on the design of brands. I mean it could be okay to purchase such a car, after all you need a modeler for it. But in order to use it, you need to obtain a license elsewhere.

On Cubebrush this model is being soled explicitly as Bugatti Chiron. Looks like only Unity Customers are being made a fool of.

 

No, Unity isn't at fault, the people posting the stolen content is.

Imagine going to a mall and a new store opens up, which turns out to be selling stolen property. Do people then file a complaint with the mall? After all, the mall leased the shop space. No of course not. It was the fault of the people who were fencing the stolen property.

Unity didn't sell the stolen assets, they just provided the store space that was used by other publishers. I know it FEELS like this is all one store, but technically this is really just a mall full of individual vendors. It's just a mall where the vendors pay a percentage of sales instead of a flat lease.

That said, to protect Unity's image and keep people coming to this mall, Unity does need to take a measure of effort to protect against this kind of behavior. It's not a legal matter of responsibility, just part of how they need to earn the trust of their patrons.

For what it's worth, I'm thinking the store should be more transparent about these assets, rather than simply taking them down.
Instead of giving 404 errors when someone follows a link to a given asset, I think it should have a page that openly states "This asset has been removed due to a copyright dispute" along with information/links for people who may have purchased the asset. Likewise when a whole publisher is being taken down, have a similar statement on their page.
Please don't simply remove the assets. (I mean, remove them from search results, but don't just kill the asset pages.) I have at least one asset I purchased and several more that I was interested in purchasing, and I'm looking at dead links that just leave me confused. The reason WHY an asset has been removed is VERY critical.
I also imagine such pages being useful for content that is under review. Assets that have been flagged for stolen content could have a message displayed on the page stating that the asset is currently under review for possible stolen content, and that it will be made available if everything checks out. Perhaps even add an option to be notified of the result, so if it turns out to be clean I can know to go buy it.

That's just my take at least.

That becomes a problem with a lot of things that are based off of real world objects
Let's look at guns. If I look for a model of a 1911, guess what? I'm doing to find dozens of models (hundreds on some sites) that are all going to look exactly the same. Hell, even comparing wireframes might not be enough, since I could take a highly-detailed model and convert it to a low-poly version in less time than it would take to build a new one from scratch.
Sure, those car models have active trademarks that require permission to use them in a game, but there are plenty of other examples where that doesn't apply.

This is why I advocate a "Under review" notice; it allows action to be taken quickly enough to stop potential fraud, but also makes it easier to keep the asset around if the claim fails to find ground.

 

My comment is a different thing to what you guys are talking about. You guys are talking about them stealing your actual work, while I'm talking about ripping off designs. You know, blizzard/AAA/Ferrari. It doesn't matter if every poly is unique, you will infringe by using the design of those models or visuals.

You guys are talking about simple piracy.

 

I thought that's what did happen.
Maybe I'm misinformed; I only found this out today.

 

Both. It started with ripped fantasy models. Then continued with ripped cars from a game, i. e. when you purchase such a ripped car you have both: stolen models and stolen designs.

A publisher has to have a contract with the license owner and usually pay license fees when those models are used in a game. Then there was confusion, some actually think they can purchase (or re-model) a design of a commercial car model and use it however they please and take benefit of it.

 

If I bought that Bugatti model for local use only (not commercial). Is it legal?
If not. Unity Asset Store should not allow that model there.
Why Unity not allow Mario, But allow Bugatti ??

Also, I think compare Wireframe is not enough. Many tool can change, reduce poly structure easily.
Should compare texture mapping.

 

If you buy the Bugatti and create and publish a video of your own private game in which you use the car in a way it's offending or hurting the brand, you'll definitely get a notice from the license owner.

 

How does one go about differentiating that if they are new to the unity asset store?

 

I am not sure you can, but that's the same for any public marketplace which is not policed.

 

Not that new publishers can not be trusted, but may times these rippers pop onto the scene with large portfolios and really, waaaaay to cheap packages.
I know for a developer it is great to get stuf very cheap, but that is normally a possible sign.
Then many of the reputable publishers have decent Discord or other platforms of engagement that you can go check out and do a little bit of investigation.

 

When this started @TheMessyCoder created a channel on his discord where we (members) can name trusted publishers. It's a start. And as additional benefit you get to know publishers who you might have never heard of because their assets aren't that popuplar for whatever reason, but yet they are good. I've learned that myself, it's a quite impressive list of publishers with assets worth checking out.

 

There seems to be two separate issues in this thread and they're being conflated into one. One is the issue of piracy and shady publishers ripping assets from games (or whatever source) and selling them. The other is the issue of licensed content without licensed use. For the latter when it comes to anything (but mostly focused on models and art) this should be easily remedied by Unity asking for licensing conditions when a publisher tries to sell something. For the former that's a bigger issue that we can simply report and hopefully Unity takes quick action and resolves the asset. For the people that bought those assets that's unfortunate and really sucks as a game dev having to find new assets/art and replacing it in game.

 

Wouldn't this be only true if the store took an upfront fee for the shop space and not an actual cut for every sold goods?

Isn't this the same as letting someone sell illegal drugs in your store and profiting by taking 30% cut from every sold item and when you get caught you defend by saying i didn't know it was drugs so cant blame me? I would understand if the seller would only need to pay an upfront fee for every item slot in the store so then the legality of the sold goods would only be the sellers and buyers problem.

I can't understand how this can be legal that a company profits from illegal sales of someone else's ip and only if gets caught says sorry i didn't know here's a refund "if" it was a recent transaction. So should it not be unity's responsibility to be 100% sure that the assets they allow into the store are legit since they are getting cut from the sales? The inability to not know you are doing illegal stuff shouldn't make it legal?

There are also huge losses at play as to legit asset sellers who get their assets ripped off and sold in larger packs for dirt cheap have no way of knowing who has bought their assets illegally so i guess unity only refunds buyers but do not take into account the damages to the original asset sellers. And not to mention the loss of production time or whole products taken down with lawsuits if you have used ripped assets in your game.

This applies to all asset stores out there taking a cut so not blaming only unity here but i think it would be at least idea good to place a big warning to the store that you buy assets only at your own risk because unity cant be 100% sure they are not stolen and get you into trouble if used in your product.

 

There's no difference if I, as a shady publisher, pays an upfront fee to Unity for the store space or I give them 30% of every sale. I'm still selling stolen assets.

 

My point was that isn't unity a partner in crime if it profits from illegally sold goods that it failed to check if it was legal or not?

If a grocery store starts to sell stolen stuff and profits from it, i bet every time if caught it would not be let of the hook just by saying i didn't know it was stolen. Its the stores obligation to make sure the stuff it sells is legal or face the consequences. It be a different story if the store were just renting sales space with upfront fee and stating no selling illegal stuff.

I guess the whole asset store concept is still so new and most of the users are small individuals that no one has made lawsuits against them and or this hasn't caught any eyes of the right people yet.

In a sense you could compare these asset sites with pirate sites where the site owner collects ad revenues from illegal downloads and defends by saying that its not the site owner who uploads the illegal content but nowadays they have finally started busting these owners hard left and right but then again there's sites like youtube that keeps happily collecting profit from piracy so i guess its just matter of how the business works to make it legal or illegal. for example if i show that every now and then i remove the most obvious illegal stuff then its fine but i would really like to know how much does these companies actually profit from piracy.

 

Lol. People stil use the Pirate Store?

 

100% correct. If I let someone sell drugs from my store and I take 30% cut then I am also the one selling drugs. In this case, Unity is selling pirated or unlicensed products and are financially benefiting from it. Unfortunately, up until now, the burden of responsibility has fallen on the unwary Asset Store customer which certainly doesn't seem fair since they believe they are buying from a reputable source..

 

Last time I bought something form the Asset Store, my purchase went to "Unity Technologies ApS".

When you purchase something from a 'store' in the Asset Store 'mall', the purchase is actually with the mall, not the store. On top of that, the 'stores' in this 'mall' don't actually pay any rent. Real life malls don't work like this.

Not being a lawyer, I can't say who is responsible, but the mall analogy doesn't make any sense to me.

 

Designs aren't protected..... at all... Sorry they just aren't... I know this from personal experience... people can steal your S*** ,AAA included.... go to a college, share your work with a teacher, they can sell your designs and counts as there own make a profit, you sue, you lose, because you don't have fancy lawyers...So, there are little protections..

I have had some people make rude comments, because I refuse to post my work with the world...THIS is one reason why, to many thieves.. Designs, can't be protected... Game play, mechanic, IE designs, no way can protect, other wise we would have no games....

So, if you mean design as in, say UX/UI Design, or design say of a scene, model, same thing..people get around that.. now do I agree? with this, no I just see it happen over the years and its gotten worse... worst thing to do, is SHARE your stuff with people on the net...WAIT until you your self make $$ before sharing most work ...designs w/e.. I learned that a long time ago, from having to fight a larger company in court, it sucks and I lost as they held out long enough for me to run out of $$$ ...

So people just NEED to learn.. plain and simple. people want to steal your S***, so they get the credit and make money.... I have had my current designs, I have NOT showed a single sole...and won't until release. .Even my testers will NEVER see some of it.. those designs..

Live and learn, that is my motto and from life experiences, I have learned that, when I see one of my designs that made a lot of money, and I made 0... it pisses you off, but you just learn from it...

 

this is because license, and contracts are different but also can be merely the same...

I work in this industry professional with companies , Ford, GM, and other AAA companies

Some have copy right protected art, etc..

Ford, GM, there names, copy right protected unless you are giving this right.. many users are.. I'm one so I know, I can make Ford, GM and others all day, with in my contract/license I was given. as other artsit.

Now, what some are bitching about and saying someone art, saying it LOOKS like something...

This DOES NOT MEAN A damn thing.. YOU can make anything nearly, that looks like anything, just because its a LOOK A LIKE, does not mean its STOLEN, or bad... This is guess what art....subjective... I don't care if someone TRIED to clone a model...it DOES not matter..

Now if someone RIPPED out art, sure this is ILLEGAL.... This is where all the crap comes from a lot of the time, people doing this.. This is why when I hear folks say, such and such stole this or that, just because it LOOKS like it...DOES NOT MEAN a damn thing..

People jump the gun now a days and accuse people with little to no proof.. this happens on the new and in life, I cant stand people like it..

if someone stole, SHOW PROOF, IE WIREFRAMES, Files, Software use, Config files and much more.... which them yes Unity should get involved.. .and CHECK according.... but to say its ripped off for looking like it, tells me, people here don't have a clue..

every FPS is a rip off, every MMO is a rip off , of another, movies are too, so much art of today is, hardly anything is unique..... So, folks, need to report anything that looks off, but Unity is to fast, to take things down with crap PROOF.... or they just ignore it...

the OP that may own the art that was made by a person, company, needs to be speaking with Unity to prove this...So that it is fair to all sides. .

I cant stand thieves, but I can't stand people who think they are the police, and trying to screw every person over out of spite, I see this all the time....

Bottom line, use a contractor, or use a person with GOOD rep on the store, PROBLEM solved...

 

any decent artist knows better..... reputable source.. that was a laugh.... I have told anyone I did work for, to STAY the hell away from the asset store, when it comes to art..... ...Unless its for learning, stay away.. .PERIOD...

 

Looks like a three year old did the texturing, and does not know the basics of wasted SPACE in unwrapping....


This is a RED FLAG for a HORRIBLE artist and you should run anyways.. .Unity shame on you for allowing bad art, no matter if its stolen ..... this is why I would tell people to learn the basics even if you BUY art , you need to know what to look for, on what is good and what is not....

This is horrible.... spacing is the worst , a first year college student would KNOW better Learning to pack .....is important.....Cmon guys, why was this even on the store???

 

https://sketchfab.com/tags/blizzard folks do it all day, and Blizzard does not own every DWARF, or Gnome, people make art fantasy base all the time and its inspired by..... WOW clones all over the internet.... Mario clones as well, this includes art, designs and more....Not ILLEGAL... now they can't call them Mario and Blizzard names, this is a fact... but they can make art like Mario, Blizzard all day...

So yes wireframes matter... go ask your lawyer, about the process for any 3d artist. ( I know I have had to for years.. and follow to it... ( be sure to check laws per country as well... This matters..

and all over the industry..


PRIME EXAMPLE

https://www.mmorpg.com/columns/the-top-5-free-to-play-wow-clones-2000103813


See art in some of the games, most of it is all look a likes of BLLIZZARD art...

This is another reason why Wireframes matter, because making look a like ie INSPRIRED
is legal, where ripping is not.


anyways Unity should be changing there process for a long time, I wouldn't and don't buy art from any store, and never will... You can't tell a model is any good with out seeing wireframes / topology of a model.... any 3d modeler, that knows better will tell you this as well.

alot of folks learning and non artist, won't know better ... and this can help, not only buy good stuff, but help find folks who are ripping... IE Stealing...

 

They are copyright infringement. If Blizzard / Nintendo really wanted to they could take them down. But it's one thing to offer these as "fanart" for free, (or with an editorial license) and it's another to use them in your commercial game.

Are you seriously implying that I can take any of those sketchfab D.VA models, and create a game called "The flying Adventures of C.VA and friends" and if it becomes popular enough for Blizzard to hear about, I won't get in trouble?

 

No they can't, BLIZZARD would of been in trouble as well..... You can make art and sell it inspired by w/e you WANT. .this is a fact... ( you cant use there names, or 100% same designs.._

Blizzard WAS not the first person to make a GNOME, or a DWARF with that same art style, sorry they are NOT. . games, movies, been doing this for years.... if that was the case everyone would of sued and said, THAT LOOKS LIKE MINE!!!! . Hollywood stars try that S***..

Sorry but they can/t do that.... They protect there names and such... and if the model was 100% the same... but designs, like Blizzard has ARE not protected, .;. they are PROTECTED from someone ripping, stealing sure...

but actually making something like it, no sorry they aren't ....Blizzard would of been sued by D &D , EQ, AC, and many other games years ago, if that was the case.. I had to deal with this legally for years when I did client work over a long career, to make sure I was protected, by work asked,/Done, as people can say, THAT LOOKS LIKE WHAT I DID!!, and sue your ass, if its not inspired by......

This is why you see very few classes that actually win,... because you cant sue for that.. people try all; the time, and lose for that reason..


ps: the designs that are protected, is if someone took the model sheets, concepts and made the same thing 100% or barely changed, yes that is protected and this is where people get this twisted and think everything is protected... its not... ask any good lawyer.. and I have to deal with a few over my career to protect myself. because of people always looking to sue...


Basically what is protected, is someone using the source from the game, and using that or making small changes, that is PROTECTED by BLIZZARD, IE mario , there names... etc


But if someone made something INPSIRED by, look a like, that is NOT protected..... That is why you see clones sold every where and people make millions... this is where people get this part twisted.. everyone would be sueing then..

bottom line, use people with good reps, and problem solved, its that easy to and ask for a contract with protections...

 

I was looking for this, good write up, to what I been saying... again not giving legal advice, but know what your saying and spreading so that its fair to all sides... This gives a better understanding..

https://kellysthoughtsonthings.com/selling-fan-art-online-difference-parody-plagiarism/

 

So...

 

Which was my point, Hollywood does this all the time!! when a character in a game.. IT LOOKS like me!! anyone nearly can say that its them or they own it, if its say like a DWARF, what would be to stop, BLIZZARD, EQ, D&D.. from saying that DWARF, looks like my copy righted game, you stole my design.... so this is why its hard to prove and deal with, UNLESS its a 100% copy, which can be proven.. or a rip from a game.. . ....which was my point..

Best route, like I said, like the rest of us, is to HIRE a lawyer, related to this, this protects your self and they will TELL you what is allowed and what is not. I been down this route, since Game development, has been my professional job for years. So, do that. if you are still confused and should regardless, of what any of us say.. ( laws are also different as I said, country to country.

One example...where does this end.... Which is one example of paradony and copy righting..... you can't claim it, if it LOOKS like something, or that you think it does...



https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43596000.

 

Saw the refunds pop up in my account, glad this thread explained the issue. Always a bit suspicious when these big-portfolio asset publishers show up out of nowhere, and I believe ArtCoding had a fairly dodgy website as well.

Couple of points - I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, but I have studied this topic in the US:

1. Unity is a US-based company, so they are a beneficiary of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, like Facebook, the Apple & Google Play Stores, etc. Basically it limits their liability exposure as a third-party for facilitating transactions between sellers & buyers. They can do some quality-of-life things like offer refunds, and notify customers after removing bad sellers, but they are otherwise not really required to do much.
   
   
2. Copyright != Trademark. While there can be an overlap, like with Mickey Mouse or Mario, generally US copyright applies to any creative work automatically from creation, while [registered] trademarks have to be applied-for and approved, at considerable legal expense. Any actual written/created work - code, dialogue, or art - is protected from copying, but the gameplay/design, general concept, etc are not.
   
   But the onus is on the copyright owner to actually enforce their rights. So Nintendo or Disney (or Ferrari) has to actually look for / find out about any infringement, and send out cease and desist letters, get lawyers involved, etc. It's not actually any other individual's or company's responsibility to let them know (unless it's law enforcement, court officer, their employees/contractors, etc).
   
   
3. Once you've decided to make a commercial game, you are essentially taking on a business & legal responsibility. Whether you use contractors or pre-made assets, you basically need to keep track of licensing & rights-clearance for anything you use. Not only art/models, but code, music/sounds, visual f/x, and fonts are all copyrighted, and conceivably using any of them without permission opens you up to potential liability.
   
   Does that mean that Microsoft is gonna shut your game down for using Verdana? No, probably not, because most games don't get seen by that many people. But they *could*, so don't take the chance.
   
   Buy from reliable-seeming vendors, and if you are in doubt, do your homework - contact them over email, or check out their company/website. Do some reverse-image searches on any assets you like, to make sure they aren't ripped or stolen. This is all Business 101 stuff, and you can totally make games for fun without it, but if you plan to sell commercially, it's all part of the job.

 

I'm assuming English is not your primary language with your posts being difficult to read as they're full of grammatical nonsense, improper use of ellipses, excessive use of CAPS, etc. but you might want to keep to the point of the thread.

I feel you missed the point of the post by Rowlan entirely. While the texture quality might be crap complaining about why it's on the store is just yelling into an echo chamber. Unity isn't about policing the quality of anything any more than Steam will do that for games you submit. It's up to the consumer to decide if the quality of the asset is worth the price you pay or if you want it in your game or not.

In a later post you mention "proof" of theft of assets and that's exactly what Rowlan showed. In both assets the textures and texture names are the same. I don't care how creative you are but you don't go building a car asset (or any asset for that matter) and name your textures the same as another when the names are version specific (010614MSCL_main.png vs carbody_main.png or something like that). Yes the texture is different in the background but I think that's just a transparent background vs. a non-transparent one. The layout, while shoddy in your opinion, is the same. It's highly doubtful that two separate authors would produce a large number of textures with the same names and same layouts for an asset. IANAL but I'm sure presenting the two would be sufficient to warrant legal action, if at the very least the removal of the assets for investigation.

As for your bottom line of using a contractor or an author with a good reputation, even that is very subjective. Who's to say your contractor isn't stealing the assets and selling them to you, claiming them as their own? I just recently stumbled over some 2D infographics we had done by a contractor (who was paid good money for their work) and found the infographic turn up on Fiverr. Yes do your homework but it's only as good as it can be and even the best of us can get swindled.

Stop yelling at everyone about your "experience" and how much you deal with commercial companies and how clever you are but can't reveal "TRICKS OF THE TRADE". Stay on the thread topic (which is the overabundance of stolen/ripped assets) and not about the quality of what's in the store.

 

My dude, what are you even talking about at this point? Please stop derailing the thread.

And while you are at it, please look into how to use punctuation properly. Even if english is not your first language, using ellipses all over the place and random capitalizations in the places for no reason just makes your post hard to read and offputting.

EDIT: @UnityMaru are you able to escalate and ask the asset store submission team why this https://assetstore.unity.com/packag...02.788826863.1632813403-1070519114.1629718294 was ever allowed onto the store? If the store takes so long to approve submissions (which makes everyone believe it is done by a human), then why is said human not checking if something is clearly a violation? A bugatti is obviously not allowed to be sold, and surely a submission team should be picking these up?

Otherwise what exactly is the point of the very lengthy submission process, if it only adds pain to users but does not protect them from even the most basic of rip off schemes such as posting licensed cars as "new and unique" models?

This and many others like it should not be on the store. Fair enough for ones like fantasy characters where it is hard to tell if it is from somewhere else, but actual licensed cars?!?! Something needs to be changed in the process. There should be more to reviewing submissions than just checking if it runs and whether there is adult material in it.....

I worked on a project for london fire brigade that had previous developers (we inherited the project) use a model of a car from turbosquid without license (I believe it was VW but cannot remember exactly as it was 3 years ago). Turbosquid were then sued by the car manufacturers and forced to do a massive sweep of models on the store - so please dont assume Unity is allowed to get away with this, it wont just be users who have to pay the price of takedown's, this could have real repurcussions eventually for Unity too if it is not dealt with properly.

 

Yes I finally broke down and did that.

 

Seems like some staff training will be needed. Because I'm fairly sure at this point, bad press is going to leak out before long and uh oh, not good for shareholders. Lets fix this sooner than later.

I guess Unity's own AI department could easily flag suspect models.

For that to work, Unity should just consult with professionals, not us on the forums. They do have a legal department, after all.

 

I'm not sure how easy it is to flag a suspect model or art. AI can learn through patterns and whatnot but what exactly is it looking for to flag it? Anyways like you said the ball is in Unity's court but either they're slow to respond (if at all) and in some cases things are still out there that shouldn't be.

 

@Salvatore_Unity I do understand that Unity doesn't do anything, especially not comment in public, but the silence is getting annoying. Example:

The above Super Drift Cars Pack is now gone. So who removed it? Did the publisher or did Unity? Is Unity actually taking action or not? Because the other asset of the publisher - including the publisher - are still there:

https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/46243

 

That's still a very hard thing to look for.
For one, what is considered "cheap" for a model? Honestly all the assets I've personally seen removed were priced rather reasonably. Some artists try to undercut their competition. Stolen content may come from a less-recognized title that doesn't have as great art, or has a lower poly count. There's a lot of good prices for stuff on the asset store.

New artists may post a lot if they've had their stuff on hand for a while and only recently found they could sell on the store.

People selling stolen art can easily make fake artstation profiles to show off fake work. Everyone selling content here is usually selling it elsewhere too, and that goes for both the honest and dishonest ones. How is one supposed to recognize honest work by checking other platforms?

None of this stuff is really that cut-and-dry.

 

This is a post about helping how to find a trusted publisher, I'm not saying the publisher is a pirate:

Publisher Roxioncl:

https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/42946


Let's dive into a single asset, e. g. Project SUV Cars Destructible Mobile Ready


Texture size 1024 * 1024 is usually ripped from mobile (not saying this one is).

"This pack includes 25 SUV vehicles with separate parts: bumpers, hoods, doors." ... Now ask yourself: Who sells that kind of (25 !) cars for €26.79 with that kind of interior?



Check the releases of all 4 assets, as of today we have 29th September 2021:

• Project SUV Cars Destructible Mobile Ready
• Version 1.0（current）, Released: Feb 4, 2020, First release
  
  No Update ...

• Project 30 Weapons 88 Skins Mobile Edition
• Version 1.0（current）, Released: Dec 10, 2019, First release
  
  No Update...

• Project Offroad Vehicles SUV Mobile Ready
• Version 1.0（current）, Released: Jan 30, 2020, First release
  
  No Update ...

• Original 10 Grenades Pack Mobile Ready
• Version 1.0（current）, Released: Jul 18, 2019, First release
  
  No Update ...

And here's where one should also check the negative reviews:



Would you trust such a publisher? (I'll continue this in another post, can have only maximum of 5 pics in a post)

 

continuing ... so let's look at the other reviews:

Project Offroad Vehicles SUV Mobile Ready



Sounds like a very promising asset. Although, reviewer was gifted the package? Well, rileex sounds kind of familiar. Wasn't there some publisher that had rileex as website? One that stole the GR3D cars as well and sold them on this very Asset Store?

Here's a webarchive link of Nikita T. The weapons kind of look familiar. I saved the webarchive too late, by the time the Asset Store team already removed the stolen GR3D cars. However why they allowed the publisher to continue, maybe the Asset Store team can clarify? But it's no different to the post above, one asset removed, the publisher is still active. Anyway, notice the publisher website?

https://rileex.wixsite.com/mysite

It's still active. And shows the Asset Store promotion page. Those cars that you see are actually the GR3D cars that were stolen from and sold on the Unity Asset Store. Hence the "yet again" I mentioned in the other post. Here's a screenshot of that page:



So there's a connection between those two. Actually there was more like common icons and what not in the images, but those are gone now.

Either way, to make this short: Just compare the environment in which those cars were taken in vs the one of roxioncl and draw your own conclusion from all of this.


And here's the point where I'd like to see proof that those assets were indeed created by this publisher.

 

I saw it happen with shaders - some shader authors actually are all the same person, selling the same renamed stuff. In fact some of them just recolour Joyce (minion's art) free stuff and sell it with impunity on asset store.

I flagged stuff like this years ago before getting bored as nothing changed. How do you even solve a problem like this anyway?

Hopefully people are talking about how at Unity.